My PC used to work normally, although it occasionally crashed during demanding games. After I bought Minecraft and joined a Realm, it started restarting within a few minutes of launching any game. Windows sometimes boots normally afterward, but other times it gets stuck diagnosing the system, reports that startup failed, or says the computer needs to be repaired. I tried using Windows Reset to erase and reinstall everything, but the process fails at around 30% every time. Could this be a failing component or drive that I can diagnose myself, or should I take the PC to a repair shop?
3 Answers
The reset failing at the same point is a strong clue that the storage drive may be failing. Before reinstalling again, back up any important files while you still can, then check the drive's health with a tool such as CrystalDiskInfo. If it reports a warning or failure, replace the drive and reinstall Windows. Avoid relying on the old drive for anything important.
If the drive checks out as healthy, the next suspects are overheating, faulty RAM, or another power or hardware problem. Check temperatures while gaming, test the memory, and look in Event Viewer under Windows Logs > System for critical events around the time of the restarts. A repair shop should be able to test those parts fairly quickly if you aren't comfortable doing it yourself.
The actual blue-screen dump files can help identify the cause. If Windows or Safe Mode remains accessible, check C:WindowsMinidump and look for recent crash logs. Those can reveal whether a driver or specific hardware component is triggering the crashes. Without the stop code or dump data, it is difficult to distinguish a driver problem from failing hardware.
I hadn't considered that the failed reset could point to the drive itself. I'll back up my files and check its health before trying anything else.